How to take Thanksgiving pre-orders for meals and pies

Run Thanksgiving pre-orders through your own ordering page: open them in early November, close them on the Sunday or Monday before, and hand everything out on Tuesday, Wednesday and Thanksgiving morning in fixed pickup slots, paid by card in advance. Every turkey, tray of stuffing and pie is then counted before you shop, and the line on Wednesday moves because nobody is paying at the counter. This guide is for restaurants, bakeries, delis and caterers.

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Key dates: Thanksgiving falls on Thursday, November 26, 2026, and next year on Thursday, November 25, 2027 (OPM federal holidays). Black Friday follows on November 27, and Small Business Saturday on Saturday, November 28, 2026 (SBA).

Thanksgiving pre-order timeline for 2026

If you need a menu first, start with our Thanksgiving menu templates.

How to cap demand when slots have no limit

Be clear about this before you start: Menuthere does not limit the number of orders per pickup slot. You keep volume at what your ovens can handle with four controls instead.

The notice is rolling, not a calendar deadline: with 2 days' notice, a Thursday-morning pickup can still be booked on Tuesday morning. For a hard close on Monday night, mark the Thanksgiving items out of stock when you lock up. Check the Prebookings tab at opening and at closing so you see each day's total before it overshoots.

Worked example: a pie shop's 120-pie schedule

This is an example plan, not data from a real shop. A bakery decides it can bake 120 pies for the week: 50 pumpkin, 40 apple and 30 pecan.

Pickup slots: 8–10 AM, 10 AM–12 PM, 12–2 PM, 2–4 PM and 4–6 PM. Slots are the same on every open day, but Menuthere only offers times inside your opening hours, so the hours decide how many slots each day has.

Baking: 36 pies on Monday, 60 on Tuesday, 24 on Wednesday evening. Stopping rules: untick Tuesday under Only made on once Tuesday orders reach 36 pies; mark pecan out of stock at 30; mark everything out of stock at close of business on Monday, November 23. Orders won't spread perfectly, so put an extra person on the slots that fill first.

Set it up in Menuthere, step by step

Pre-orders are on the Lite plan (US$17 a month). Full guides: Prebooking: scheduled orders and Dishes that need notice.

1. Switch it on. Go to Settings → Ordering → Prebooking settings and turn on Enable Prebooking for Takeaway & Delivery (Prebooking must also be on in Settings → Features). Leave Make prebooking optional on so everyday orders keep working.
2. Choose the Thanksgiving items. In Applies to, set Which orders can be prebooked to Specific items and tick the pies, whole turkeys, family meals and sides. Tick every Thanksgiving item: a basket mixing a ticked dish with an unticked one is asked to split.
3. Set the notice. Under Booking options, set Customers pick to Date & time and Earliest booking time to 2 days.
4. Set the days. Under Only made on, pick Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday.
5. Set the dates. Under Dates, set the Date range from November 20 to November 26, and Book up to 30 days so an order on November 2 can reach the 26th. With step 4, only the 24th, 25th and 26th are offered; tick Friday or Saturday too if you want Friendsgiving pickups on the 20th or 21st.
6. Add pickup slots. Choose Fixed time ranges, pick the open days, add each slot and press Save changes.
7. Take payment online. Connect Stripe in Settings → Payments & tax, then in Payment options by order type turn off Cash for Takeaway. That applies to all takeaway orders, not just Thanksgiving ones.
8. On pickup days, open Orders → Prebookings and sort by Prebooking time. The red Prepare now box lists orders due within the hour, with a countdown.

Customers who visit after hours still see Pre-order for later, and every slot falls inside your opening hours.

Take payment up front

Customers who have already paid have a reason to turn up, and you have the money for turkeys before you buy them. On Lite, customers pay the full amount online by card through Stripe. Part-payment deposits aren't a checkout option, so price for full prepayment and put your pickup and refund policy on the order page.

Early-bird code: create a discount code such as EARLYPIE for 10% off Selected items (the pies), Pickup orders only, with a start date of November 2 and an end date of November 10, Uses per customer 1 and Total uses 50 for "first 50 orders". Codes can be limited by dates and weekdays, never by time of day.

Thanksgiving catering order form

Office lunches and big family orders often come by phone or email. Copy these fields into an email or document, or use the printable Thanksgiving order form.

[Business name] · Thanksgiving catering order 2026

Customer: ____________ Company: ____________ Phone: ____________ Email: ____________ Event date: ____ Guests: ____ Pickup ☐ Delivery ☐ Time: ____ Address: ____________

Hot ☐ (eat within 2 hours) Chilled ☐ (with reheating sheet) Allergies or dietary needs: ____________ Serving extras: plates ☐ utensils ☐ chafing dishes ☐ Subtotal: $____ Sales tax: $____ Delivery: $____ Total: $____ Paid on ____ by ____ · Final headcount by ____ · Cancellation terms: ____________

For custom cakes or decorated pies, the cake order form has fields for size, flavor and message. Caterers can take the regular orders online too: see online ordering for catering.

Pickup-day checklist

• Label every bag: customer name, the short order code they see, pickup slot and "bag 1 of 2".
• Print the kitchen ticket for each order (every plan) and staple it to the bag.
• Stage by slot: one shelf per pickup window, alphabetical within it.
• Keep hot orders at 140°F or above in a hot box or oven; chilled ones stay in the walk-in until the customer arrives.
• Put a reheating sheet in every chilled bag (copy ours from the menu templates page).
• Run a prepaid express line with one person reading names off the Prebookings tab.
• Spare stock: extra gravy, pie boxes, bags and a few spare pies for mistakes.
• Thursday at noon: list uncollected orders and call each customer.

Tell customers you're taking orders

• On your page (Lite): schedule a pop-up banner from November 2 to 23 and add a one-line announcement bar, up to 100 characters, such as "Thanksgiving pies: order by Nov 23".
• In store (Free): a QR code on the counter and in every bag leads straight to the pre-order menu.
• Email and SMS happen outside Menuthere; paste your ordering link into whatever tool you already use.
• WhatsApp broadcasts (Pro) are less common in the US. Meta charges about US$0.025 per marketing message to North American numbers (rate card from October 1, 2026), so 1,200 opted-in customers cost about $30 per send. Try the WhatsApp cost calculator.
• Push notifications reach regulars who installed your own Branded App.

After Thanksgiving: Black Friday and Small Business Saturday

Small Business Saturday was founded by American Express in 2010 and is co-sponsored by the SBA. On Friday, November 27, switch the Thanksgiving category off and the regular menu back on. For Saturday, November 28, set a discount code with the same start and end date, and swap the pop-up banner to a "Shop small" message. Plan the rest of the season with our restaurant marketing calendar.

Which plan you need

Free covers the online menu, QR codes, 50 orders a month and out-of-stock switches. Pre-orders, pickup slots, discount codes, Stripe and pop-up banners need Lite at US$17 a month; WhatsApp broadcasts are on Pro at US$39. Lite and Pro have a 7-day free trial (a card is needed to start; nothing is charged until it ends), and there's 0% commission on every plan. Compare them on pricing, or see how bakeries use it.

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